“Selling a picture is like sending a blind child into a room full of razor blades.It’s going to get hurt and it’s never been hurt before, it doesn’t know what hurt is,” says Mark Rothko in Lakeside Little Theatre’s production of Red.
The play, written by John Logan and directed by Dave McIntosh, is set in 1958 in the studio of famous painter Mark Rothko (Brian Fuqua). Rothko, famous for the use of the color red, is working on a large commission for The Four Seasons Restaurant. However, he seems to spend the majority of his time smoking, drinking and starting at his paintings. He also spends a great deal of time berating, and pontificating to, his young assistant Ken (Wayne Waterman).
The first half of the play is composed largely of the self-important oratory of Rothko. “Philosophy. Theology. Literature. Poetry. Drama. History. Archaeology. Anthropology. Mythology. Music. These are your tools as much as brush and pigment,” he says. He goes on to regale his poor captive assistant (and us, his captive audience) with talk of Nietzsche and Dionysius. Rothko’s monologues are passionately brought to life by Brian Fuqua but even he fails to hold our attention when we reach saturation with pomposity. The Rothko paintings (by Alan Bowers, Ruth Kear, and Sheron Brackenbury) captivate us throughout the performance, but especially when the dialog gets to be a bit too much.
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